ISRAEL – Just what might happen if the Iranians got their hands on a nuclear weapon? Would they fire it at an Israeli city, causing tens or hundreds of thousands of casualties? Or would they use it as a geopolitical weapon, seeking to dominate the Middle East and forcing the hand of Western powers, either subtly or by overtly threatening death and destruction to those who fail to heed their dictates?

While political scientists and world leaders have debated the likelihood of those two possibilities, there is a third plausible scenario: The use of a nuclear weapon by Iran to carry out an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) attack against Israel, the US, or Europe. Such an attack could cause severe damage to the electrical grid in the targeted nations, to the extent that the routines of daily life — centered around the use of electrical power — could be halted, for a short or even long period of time.Read the rest of this entry »

HOUSTON, TEXAS – A sergeant with the Houston Police Department has been relieved of duty pending the outcome of an investigation into some risqué photos she plastered on Model-Mayhem.com.

The investigation into Sgt. Stacey Suro’s online activity started last Wednesday. Sources said that’s when the higher ups at HPD learned Suro had posted nearly 100 pictures — some of them nude — on the modeling site.

KSAT’s sister station, KPRC in Houston, obtained some photos that depict Suro in fetish, bondage and other compromising positions.

Suro has since taken the link down. But before she did, KPRC found her bio where she called herself “Tessoro.” She clearly stated she was a model and was charging photographers for work. Sources told KPRC that many of her subordinates have seen these photos.

The department’s policy on conduct states: “Employees shall exhibit professional conduct at all times and shall not engage in any activity, including unlawful activity that would degrade or bring disrespect upon the employee or the department.”

Houston Police Chief Charles McClelland released a statement saying that the department is aware of the allegations but he could not comment until the investigation is completed.

NEW JERSEY – New Jersey Assemblywoman L. Grace Spencer, who owns a Pomeranian, five cats and a rabbit, has introduced a state bill that would require drivers to secure pets in seat belts, or pay up to $1,000 in tickets or fines. The $1,000 fine would be imposed only in extreme cases of animal cruelty, such as keeping a pet unsecured in the bed of a pickup truck, Bloomberg reported.

The fines would not apply to pets kept in crates.

Endorsed by New Jersey’s Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, legislation to require seat belts for pets has been in discussion in the state at least since the summer, not that such a bill doesn’t have its critics, who argue that more attention should be paid to the state’s budget deficit and 9.9 unemployment rate.

But Spencer defended the bill saying, lawmakers are “taught to multi-task.”

“This doesn’t limit my ability to address other issues for the people of New Jersey,” she said.

Other states, such as Hawaii, Connecticut, Illinois and Maine have banned motorists from driving with pets in their laps, but New Jersey is apparently the first state to require that pets be strapped in.

Whether New Jersey’s and similar bills become the law, Melissa Ramirez, founder of Chicago-based Zerimax, which makes seat belts for pets, is already filling a new market niche. Launched in May, Zerimax was named in part after Ramirez’s dog Max, a miniature Pinscher, that became paralyzed in a car accident in 2008. While airbags protected the driver, Ramirez’s husband, Max was thrown across the car. Determined to protect other pets, Ramirez sells a variety of harnesses that range in price from $20 to $30.

“There was a void in the market with devices that were easy to use,” she said. “There are a lot but they were cumbersome and difficult.” Ramirez, apparently, is filling this void.

Zerimax’s sales have quadrupled every month since the company’s launch in May, according to Ramirez, who has a marketing background. With a Groupon deal that starts Sept. 22, Ramirez expects to sell around 70,000 harnesses by the end of the year, even without pet seat belt legislation requiring them.

But she cautions that if a bill such as New Jersey’s becomes law and other states adopt similar measures, cheap products could flood the market. Ramirez urges customers to look for quality when it comes to securing their pets.

“Check that items are sewn and not glued,” she said, and choose metal over plastic, she said. Make sure the safety device fits your pet properly. “Thirty pounds of dog can be distributed differently in a Greyhound,” she said. “Not all devices out there will fit your dog.” Ramirez suggests owners measure their pets and understand their girth.

“It would help to create standards so if the category grows,” said Ramirex, “ it grows properly.”

KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI – Authorities spent Friday afternoon looking for explosives inside the vehicle of a man who walked into the Kansas City federal building and asked if he was on a terrorist watch list.

The man entered the Richard Bolling Federal Building on 600 E. 12th Street around noon, according to the FBI.

While the suspect never made any threats, authorities detained him and searched his vehicle. He was released early Friday evening.

The Kansas City Police Department’s bomb and arson squads were dispatched to his vehicle, located in the Fletcher Daniels State Office Building parking lot on 615 E. 13th Street. A bomb-sniffing dog then detected the presence of explosives, prompting evacuations at the state office building.

Just before 5 p.m., authorities confirmed that no explosives were found in the vehicle. A temporary flight restriction issued for downtown Kansas City was lifted shortly after. Police reopened the streets, which were closed for most of the day, just after 5 p.m.

State office employees were cleared to leave for the day. The federal building was also closed for the day for precautionary reasons, according to authorities. Earlier, children in the day care center at the federal building were evacuated to a pre-approved, off-site location.

Employees said Friday’s evacuation was unlike any they’d been through previously.

“This one may be real…I’ve been through routine, but nothing like this,” said George Kelley.

The incident in Kansas City came shortly after the all-clear was given at the University of Texas-Austin and North Dakota State University after bomb scares that evacuated their campuses.

WASHINGTON, DC – White House press secretary Jay Carney said Friday the violent protests throughout the Middle East are not directed at the United States or U.S. policy but are a response to a YouTube video:

CARNEY: We also need to understand that this is a fairly volatile situation and it is in response not to United States policy, and not to, obviously, the administration, or the American people, but it is in response to a video, a film that we have judged to be be reprehensible and disgusting. That in no way justifies any violent reaction to it, but this is not a case of protests directed at the United States writ large or at U.S. policy, this is in response to a video that is offensive to Muslims.

Again, this is not in any way justifying violence, and we have spoken very clearly out against that and condemned it. And the president is making sure in his conversations with leaders around the region that they are committed as hosts to diplomatic facilities to protect both personnel and buildings and other facilities that are part of the U.S. representation in those countries.

The protests which began earlier this week have expanded rapidly across the Middle East on Friday.

Protesters attacked the U.S. Embassies in Tunis and Sudan; Tunisian protesters smashed windows and lit fires inside the embassy compound, while gunfire could be heard. Images of a dark column of smoke over the Tunisian site have circulated on the Internet Friday.

According to a page on the State Department’s website describing what an embassy is, an attack on an embassy is considered an attack on that country.

“Because an embassy represents a sovereign state, any attack on an embassy is considered an attack on the country it represents,” the page reads.

SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS — An endangered eyeless spider is holding up a $15 million Texas highway project.

Construction of the highway underpass project on Texas 151 was indefinitely delayed after a biologist consultant with the Texas Department of Transportation discovered the Braken Bat Cave meshweaver, according to San Antonio Express-News.

The Express-News reports the spider, which is about the size of a dime, was added to the endangered species list 12 years ago.

Dr Jean Krejca of Zara Environmental told the paper the finding of this spider is like ”stumbling on a new Galapagos Island.”

Department spokesperson Josh Donat says it’s just now a wait-and-see plan on what to do.

“We have to wait until the Fish and Wildlife Service gives us the thumbs up for plan B or plan C or whatever plan we end up going with,” he told KSAT-TV.

Donat added that the finding was a “huge surprise.”

“It’s phenomenal. Those who are really into spiders geek out about it,” Donat told KSAT. “This is really cool.”

Construction for the $15 million highway project started in April.

This is the second time this type of spider has been found in the world, both times being in Bexar County, Texas.

NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA – Not content to go after suspected wrongdoers in court, a Louisiana federal prosecutor apparently spent years attacking them in the comments section of the local newspaper’s website as well. His online barbs, posted under pseudonyms such as “Henry L. Mencken1951,” “legacyusa,” and “dramatis personae,” were meant to be anonymous. Instead, they have cost him his job and made him the target of at least one defamation lawsuit.

According to the New Orleans Times-Picayune, the owner of a landfill that is the target of a federal probe got so fed up with Mencken1951’s comments on NOLA.com articles about him that he hired the famous forensic linguist James Fitzgerald to unmask the troll. Fitzgerald compared the comments to a legal brief by then-Assistant U.S. Attorney Sal Perricone, and found striking similarities, including the use of obscure words such as “dubiety” and “redoubt.” Perricone eventually fessed up and stepped down from his position, and he now faces a defamation lawsuit from the landfill owner, Fred Heebe.

A sample comment about Heebe from Mencken1951: “If Heebe had one firing synapse, he would go speak to Letten’s posse and purge himself of this sordid episode and let them go after the council and public officials. Why prolong this pain… .” Letten refers to Perricone’s boss, U.S. Attorney James Letten.

Now the saga has apparently inspired another embattled local figure to lash out against his online tormentors. Yesterday the Times-Picayune reported that an indicted parish president has filed a defamation lawsuit against a NOLA.com commenter who goes by the name “campstblue.” The suspected culprit? None other than Perricone, who, if the allegations are correct, also took potshots at a deputy U.S. attorney general who might end up having a say in deciding whether Perricone gets censured for his conduct.